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Continue reading →: Abusive Childhoods Increase Risk of Later Alcoholism
Sitting in AA meetings over a number of years I have been struck by the amount of stories I have heard about fellow AAs having had abusive childhoods and have always wondered how much this sort of maltreatment in childhood contributes to later alcoholism. In my research I have found…
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Continue reading →: The earlier you start drinking the greater the chance of being alcoholic
Early Onset to Begin Drinking It is a very common theme in AA meetings and other 12 step groups about how young alcoholics started drinking. I always wondered if this had an effect on later alcoholism, although I know many alcoholics who started drinking much later in life. Looking at…
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Continue reading →: Explaining that “warm glow” of the first drink!?
The first drink does it!? Some structural and functional differences in affective circuitry in the brain have been found in adolescents at risk of alcoholism compared to controls, and may precede alcoholism onset and thus constitute markers of risk. Thus, it is reasonable to hypothesize that pre-alcoholic differences in the…
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Continue reading →: Spiritus contra spiritum.
Explaining the Spiritual Thirst In this blog we copy from an article that we have come across recently in which very respective neuroscientists, in their introduction, give a good insight into the spirituality of recovery (1). One day we believe science will come to accept that these so-called spiritual practices…
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Continue reading →: Why a spiritual solution?
In the first in a series of blogs we discuss the topic of why does the solution to one’s alcoholism and addiction require a spiritual recovery. This is a much asked question within academic research, although the health benefits of meditation are well known and life styles incorporating religious affiliation…
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Continue reading →: Contemplating that what “I Am”
In a previous blog we looked at how centring prayer helps one get “out of self”. This contemplative prayer or meditation is more than simply not being in self regulation. It is a deeper commune with what one is, beyond this self regulation. Contemplation may be more profound than the…
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Continue reading →: Getting out of “self” via Prayer and meditation
When I first came into recovery I constantly heard the refrain about “getting out of self” – in fact steps 10-12 help one do so. Step 12, by helping others in recovery and step 11 which encourages prayer and mediation. Can we get out of “self” by prayer and mediation?…
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Continue reading →: At Risk Adolescents have Emotional Dysregulation?
Following up from our previous blog on the abnormalities in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) in alcoholics, brain regions which govern emotional regulation, we came across another study which appears to show that adolescents at increased risk for later alcohol use disorders (AUDs) may also be showing an emotion regulation…
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Continue reading →: Predicting relapse via extent of emotional dysregulation?
Predicting relapse via extent of emotional dysregulation? by alcoholicsguide Even the most experienced counselors have difficultly spotting a recovering alcoholic in danger of relapse. Brain imaging scans might do a better job according to a study last year by researchers at Yale University. They suggested that alcoholics with abnormal activity in…
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